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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Experimenting with Basket Weave Frosting

I purchased four boxes of cute colorful sugar flowers and a rotating cake tray for cake decorations in Indonesia earlier this week. I was ecstatic with these findings and as usual, I could not wait to start utilizing them.

Yesterday, I made the rich chocolate cake and frosting that I once tested with the kids. However, this time around, I tried to experiment with a new method of cake frosting. It's something that I have never tried before - the basket weave decorating technique. Based on some online cake decorating tutorials and inspirational floral basket cake pictures found in the internet, basket weave frosting seems easy to be done and guarantees beautiful end results.

In short, I was challenged.

My intention yesterday was to make a pretty floral basket cake. Oh well, making basket weave frosting turned out not as easy as I thought. It indeed required practice, patience and butter cream with correct spreading consistency. Also, I think I went a little bit overboard with the icing sugar for my chocolate butter cream frosting yesterday. Hence, the frosting that I used yesterday was not so cooperative when I forced it to make the woven designs for the cake. *Sigh!*Apparently I am still not that savvy enough when it comes to mixing butter cream.

Moving on, for an amateur like me, experimenting with this frosting style was utter laboring moments. My husband told me to quit it after the first three stripes I made and asked me to do the easier frosting method. My Mom-in-Law who happened to see me having a hard time decorating this cake remarked that making patterns for the cake frosting was kind of pointless to do as once the cake is swallowed into the stomach; it's going to be shapeless anyway. No offence, but does not this law apply to any kind of food we eat?

Nevertheless, amid the protests, I persevered. I tried to finish what I started.

So here we go, some photos of the somewhat messy floral basket cake that I made yesterday.

Floral basket chocolate cake: Before.

I used melon essence for the green frosting which tasted quite nice, in my opinion.

Floral basket chocolate cake: After.

By the way, on the taste front, overall, the cake's taste was still quite nice I guess, except that the frosting was kind of too sweet for adults. Thanks for this; my funny husband said that I am indeed a sweet person to him because I always bake really sweet cakes for him. Hmm, do we have an Amen here? Do you think this is a correct way to define a sweet person at all? Haha.

In conclusion, my first floral basket cake yesterday didn't exactly meet my expectation but I forgive myself for this mess since it's only my first time trying. Practice makes perfect!